If you thought you were going crazy last Wednesday night watching ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, don’t worry; you weren’t. A man randomly decided to stand up behind John Kruk and take off his Dr. Pepper shirt. And yes, he actually proceeded to take a bottle of soda and pour it all over his bare chest. Best part of all? The guy who pulled off this legendary prank is Long Island’s very own Tom Petrini, who is currently a freshman at Northeastern University and a Chaminade alumnus.
However, Petrini wasn’t the first to pull this stunt: a few days earlier, Clemson Tigers fan Davis Toney poured soda into his mouth and danced shirtless behind a sportscaster during ESPN’s College GameDay segment at Clemson.
Petrini saw another post game show set up when he attended Game 6 of the MLB’s American League Championship Series in Boston that same day. “I saw that guy at Clemson, and I knew what I had to do,” Petrini said.
Petrini may have had everything planned out, but those who tuned in to watch Baseball Tonight that evening were quite surprised—some even mistook his Dr. Pepper shirt as a marketing ploy.
The original image that went viral.
Those who watched closely, however, saw that Petrini was covering himself with Coke. “My exact thought before I [covered myself with Coke] was ‘nobody’s going to notice,’” Petrini said. “But I guess when millions of people see a ten second clip of you on a loop, you open yourself up to scrutiny.”
He’s right—the image of Petrini bathing in soda went viral.
Within a day of the event, he had reached the front page of Reddit, was featured on the Tosh.0 website, and gained over 250,000 likes on iFunny. Dr. Pepper even followed Petrini on Twitter and called him a legend in a private message.
Everybody loves a good prank. But how many times can one say that he knows the person who performs the act? Petrini’s stunt may have only lasted twenty seconds, but to Long Islanders, he will always be remembered as the guy who pulled off one of the best photobombing stunts of all time.